Former Senate aide Brodkorb critical after crash

MENDOTA HEIGHTS, Minn. - A controversial former Senate aid who issuing the stateof Minnesota for discrimination was critically injured in a car crash Wednesday night.

The Minnesota State Patrol says Michael Brodkorb ran off the road and struck the wall of a bridge on I-35E at Highway 13 in Mendota Heights around 9:15 p.m. His Subaru Forester then careened across the northbound lanes of the interstate and struck the median wall.

The State Patrol website lists Brodkorb in critical condition at Regions Hospital.

A source confirmed to KARE 11 political reporter John Croman that it was the former senate aid who was fired in the wake of his affair with then-Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch.

Investigators say alcohol was detected in the crash, and Brodkorb was not wearing a seatbelt. It is not yet known whether he was legally drunk at the time of the accident.

On Thursday morning Koch tweeted "Seems he will be fine. Still out."

Brodkorb was an aide to Senate Republicans and filed a lawsuit last year after he was fired over his affair with Koch. He alleges he was a victim of discriminationbecause of his gender and had his personal privacy violated.

Brodkorb has stated publicly that a woman caught in an affair with a superior would not have been fired as he was.

So far the lawsuit has cost the state of Minnesota and its taxpayers more than $200,000.